“One of the lasting moments from last year’s 18-win season was when Brett Brown sounded off about the Sixers’ high-volume roster turnover.

First, the third-year Sixers head coach was disappointed that player Brandon Davies had been traded last December, saying the move made it tough to build a team and culture. Then later, Brown expressed reluctance to coach a team of “gypsies.”

“To coach gypsies, to have to coach a revolving door, that’s not what I’m looking for,” Brown said.

But as the Sixers enter the third year of the epic rebuilding process, Brown expects a lot less roster turnover.”

” (S)ome players are quite effective at bullyball. One of the theoretical pluses of the Spurs acquiring LaMarcus Aldridge is his supposed ability to negate smallball by being an effective scorer when presented with a smaller defender. At least in 2014/15, this theory appears to hold up. I’ll get to the methodology in a moment, but Aldridge shot just under 72% from the floor from around the post area when the closest defender was undersized. Combine that efficiency with his minuscule turnover rateand the mobility and length to allow him to catch the ball in a variety of positions on the floor, and yes, it’s probably fair to say Aldridge is a weapon who can pick on the mouse in the house. So, which other players struggle or excel when confronted with a smaller defender? Which players in fact require the mismatch to be effective?”

QOTD: “(O)ne of Gregg Popovich’s secrets in plain sight has been the way he builds a bench and employs them and trusts them so much during the regular season that he can rest his starters so much and still win so many games. He doesn’t have better reserves than other teams, and he loses guys regularly. But his players abide by their system of play and he relies on them and trusts them. It’s a big part of coaching (and running any successful business), making your employees feel a part of the organization and success and trusting them and taking an interest in their fate.”

– Why The Cavs Are Terrible With LeBron James On The Bench (from Coach Nick, BBall Breakdown):

“Coach Nick broke down every possession the Cleveland Cavaliers have had when LeBron James takes his incredibly infrequent rests. These are the moments that games are decided, and their offense has struggled mightily. It is possible there are some solutions for head coach David Blatt.”

– Andre and the Giant: How one veteran helped the Warriors turn the Finals (from Lee Jenkins, Sports Illustrated):

” Andre Iguodala lay in bed after Game 2 of the NBA Finals and his fiancée, Christina Gutierrez, placed a hand on his stomach. “Your skin,” she said, “feels hot.” Several hours had passed since Iguodala left Oakland’s Oracle Arena, but he was still burning up, as if he had just sprinted off the court. He wasn’t sick, but he popped a Tylenol and set the thermostat in his house to a frosty 60°. When theWarriors forward returned home five days later from Cleveland, he found that his air-conditioning unit had broken, maddening because his Finals fever had not. He joked that he shaved his head in hopes of cooling down. Iguodala’s condition may sound implausible, but one league trainer claims it is common for stress hormones to rise in demanding situations, causing spikes in body temperature. “It’s like you’re a car,” Iguodala says, “and your engine is overheating.” Such is the strain required to survive 48-minute collisions with the turbo-powered tank known asLeBron James.

Iguodala is 11 months older, two inches shorter and 35 pounds lighter than the most punishing player in the world. He entered the NBA out of Arizona a year after James, drafted ninth by the 76ers in 2004, and immediately began composing a mental manual on how to halt him. The 6’ 6″, 215-pound Iguodala developed a similar guide for every small forward, but James was a particularly compelling subject, and they faced off regularly in the Eastern Conference. With each matchup Iguodala added another page, until he knew James’s tendencies as well as his own. “That book is crazy big now,” says Iguodala, 31. “What he does in the post, what he does when he goes left, what he does when he comes at me like this.” Iguodala wriggles his shoulders, miming James’s open-floor shimmy. He has spent more than a decade preparing for the assignment that will define his career. ”

” Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James has faced some tough defensive players as he’s ventured through the last two postseasons.

” Kawhi Leonard in the 2014 NBA Finals and Jimmy Butler in this year’s conference semifinals come to mind as among the toughest in the NBA.

But Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala has done a better job guarding James than either of them, as you can see in the chart on the right. James is 18-of-54 against Iguodala in this series, and Iguodala’s defense has been particularly good the last two games.

– Cavs Will Need to Reduce Their (Getting) Beat Back on D Rate to Force a Game 7 (from Bob macKinnon, Vantage Sports):

” As the series has progressed, the Warriors have utilized their depth and pushed the pace; Cleveland is now getting beat back on defense at a rate of 1.32 per 100 chances versus the Warriors’ rate of 0.83.

It is hard to guard mismatch and outnumbered situations; with the rise in Cleveland’s getting beat back on defense, the Warriors have scored over 100 points in their last two wins and have seen their Points per Shot average rise from below 1.00 to 1.10.”

– Game 6: Will we see Hack-a-Iggy? (from Gerald Bourguet, hoopshabit.com):

” It’s not basketball, but it is an unbearable tactic that slows games down to a grinding halt, making the entire essence of the game about free throws (the least fun part of basketball) and denying fans the chance to see greatness by accentuating the flaws of a few poor free throw shooters. It’s honestly baffling that it’s still allowed in 2015, and it’s a detestable practice I’ve been bashing since the first round.

But from Cleveland’s perspective, and the perspective of any team in this position, Hack-A-Shaq is currently still allowed. The Cavaliers would be foolish to not utilize it with their backs against the wall.”

” Coach Nick took a DEEP dive into the Warriors pick and roll attack, charting every one and analyzing which pairing is doing best, and which defensive alignment has worked for the Cleveland Cavaliers.”

“In the Warriors’ two wins, they’ve averaged 9.5 turnovers, and Curry has shot 48.6 percent from the floor and 46.2 percent from three-point range. In the Warriors’ two losses, they’ve averaged 17.5 turnovers, and Curry has shot 34.9 percent from the floor and 32.1 percent from three-point range.

In the Cavaliers’ two wins, they’ve outrebounded the Warriors by 6.5 per game and have gotten 39.5 points, 14 rebounds and 9.5 assists from James. In their two losses, the Cavaliers have outrebounded the Warriors by one per game and have gotten 32 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists from James.”

– Impact of Warriors’ double teams on James lost in lineup furor (from Rusty Simmons, SFGate.com):

” (C)ommunication is the most important thing,” Iguodala said. “With a guy like LeBron, who can pass the ball the way he can, you’ve got to see where his eyes are. If he can see the whole floor, it’s tough to double a guy like that. So it was more about surprises.”

When Iguodala knows the double-team is coming, he can funnel James in the correct direction and the rest of the Warriors know how to rotate in support of the double-team. The Warriors mostly waited to double once James put his head down and was committed to a move.

“You’ve got to be smart about it, because you know how smart (James) is in reading situations and being able to pick you apart with his drives and his court vision,” Curry said. “… You can’t really be indecisive, because that kills any defense. If you’re going to go, you go. If not, stay back, stay home and play solid defense.”

– Golden State and the art of double teaming LeBron James (from Kurt Helin, NBC Sports):

” (T)here is an art to doubling LeBron — he is so gifted as a passer and scorer that if you don’t do it smartly he shreds your defense like Peyton Manning with time in the pocket. The Warriors were smart about it, having the doubles come from various areas and odd angles, plus at different times.”

” (T)here are reasons to be suspicious of blocks and steals as raw stats. None of us ever turns down a successful block or steal by one of our players. But, when we track these two stats, do we also track the unsuccessful blocks and steals and the corresponding damage?

Accordingly, we should count:

The fouls our players commit attempting on the ball blocks and steals and compute the free throw points they cost us.
The points we gave up when we missed a steal and had to play 4 on 5 without pre-determined rotations.
The points we gave up when the our shot blocker missed the block and his man was left alone on the weak side and scored or got fouled on the rebound.
This happens a lot.”